Post on 04-Jan-2016
description
Charles H. Cooley
Seth Harvey
Laishema Hampton
Charles Cooley
1864-1929
Born in Ann Arbor, MI
Education
• University of Michigan
• Engineering
In 1890 he married Elsie Jones• they had three children
Background
His father Thomas Cooley was a member of the Michigan Supreme Court
• Charles struggled with living under the shadow of his famous father
Cooley
Taught at the University of Michigan
He was concerned with many social problems and issues of the day, but clearly preoccupation with the self--his own self--remained paramount to him.
He did become independent of his father--but his experience caused a desire to study the self and its relationship with society. This desire to observe behavior was later applied toward his own children.
Intellectual Influences
Charles DarwinCharles Darwin
Cooley’s holistic philosophy, his stress on interactions and interrelations, and his rejection of all types of atomistic interpretation in the study of man were deeply influenced by Darwin
William JamesWilliam James
Derived the idea of the self from James’ Social Self
Pragmatism “As a method, pragmatism hovered close to
life, refusing to close the process of thought prematurerly, taking its cue from facts of life, willing to be led to new conceptions of purpose as deeper facets of human emotion and expectations were discovered.”
Influences Continued
Herbert Spencer The organic view of society “Nearly all of us who took up sociology
between 1870, say, 1890, did so at the instigation of Spencer”-Cooley 1930
Life is progressive in nature William Sumner
Groups In-groups and out-groups
Methodology
Displeased at the sociological communities division over methodology
Empirical and observational Appreciated statistics but preferred case
studies Often used own children as the subjects
of his observations
Major Works The Theory of Transportation (1894)
Concluded towns and cities tend to be located at major breaks in transportation routes
Human Nature and the Social Order(1902)
Foreshadowed Mead’s work on the self by detailing the way social responses affect the emergence of social participation\
Social Organization(1909) Looking glass self Comprehensive approach to society
Social Process(1908)
Emphasis on the non-rational, tentative nature of social organization
Significance of social competition Clash of primary group values(love,
ambition, loyalty) and institutional values(ideologies)
Society adjust to reach an equilibrium of the two values
Social Organization(1909)
A “sociological antidote” to Sigmund Freud
First formulated the role of primary groups
Society was a constant experiment in enlarging social experiences
Concluded class differences reflect different contributions to society as well as the phenomena of exploitation
Primary Groups
Intimate, face-to-face association Fundamental to the development and continued
adjustment of their members 3 basic primary groups
Family Child’s play group Neighborhood or community among adults
Almost universal among all societies Provide the earliest and most complete
experiences of social unity Instrumental in the development of the social life
Secondary Groups
Anonymous, impersonal, and instrumental relationships
Relationships are temporary and interchangeable.
Choose to be part of instead of growing into it.
Usually based on interest and activities Exchange of commodities ex. Labor for
wages, service for payment...
Looking Glass Self
Formed and emerges in primary groups 3 key principles
The imagination of our appearance to the other person.
The imagination of their judgment of that appearance.
Our resulting self-feeling, such as pride or mortification
An individuals self image mirrors the imagined reactions of others to our appearance, demeanor, and behavior
This drawing depicts the looking-glass self. The person at the front of the image is looking into four
mirrors, each of which reflects someone else's image of him back to him.
Looking Glass Self cont.
Especially important when applied to children
A child’s personality is plastic and malleable
Children learn that their actions will cause reactions in others, especially their mothers.
They learn to manipulate their environment, giving them a sense of power and control
Limitations
Our interpretation of the looking glass self varies from individual to individual